ARS SETI Team is Culling VLAR WUs!

[JWMiddleton]

I visited the Forums on ARS to see if they had info on the server outage. I found a thread with the following comments:

[*]If s@h doesn't come back up in the next day or two we can always start running some of those archived VLARs...
[*]I don't delete the VLARs, but damn, there's a 14 hour job on the 933. I wasn't going to get a lot of yield today anyway
[*]I have 91 SETI WU's left over from jan. 28'th - jan. 31'st. downloaded with SetiQ. No VLAR's - they were deleted on the fly.

[rant]
I first heard about this from Poof and got really pi$$ed. Maybe this shouldn't bother me, but it does. When they, a VERY large team, don't return VLAR resutls then these WUs get redistributed to the rest of us causing us to have more of those problem WUs. Everyone should process the WUs they are dealt! SetiQ is being modified to allow us to route VLAR WUs to machines that are not running Win9x and cli 3.03. This will allow us to put them in a queue that is serviced by a system that does not have an issue with VLAR WUs. Thank you Ken!
[/rant]

The thread is here

 

[Poof]

I'm glad that Ken is considering doing this (actually, I'm surprised). I really wish it were a non-issue though. They should just fix the bug and call it, but what has been claimed is that VLARs represent less than 10% of the total WUs sent out, so it's not critical to them.

Oh well... looks like they have worse problems right now with their network outage...

Thank god for Setiqueue and Setidriver!!!

(/me has about 6 days worth for her little farm to munch on in Setiqueue! )

 

[Gazoooo]

JW:

The caching or detetion of VLAR WU's is neither endorsed nor opposed on the Lamb Chop team.
Those types of issues are left to the individual. I run them......as do many others, yourself included I would presume. However, I would not judge you if you chose not to. It is YOUR choise.

I don't like it when they show up in droves, but as you can see from my previous posts I take what I get. Like other Ars and TA members.

Ars has been through enough the past weeks, as you are well aware, don't spread further durogitory rumours about your Friends at Ars. Please don't treat this as a threat, or in any other negitive manner, but treat it for what it is.......A gesture of reason from one member to another.......

 

[Wiz]

Those 8ASTARD$!!!
I do like the idea of sending VLAR's to those machines who can handle them better. Maybe we could set up a bank of them for folks to download to those machines that can do them better.

I haven't actually thought of this before: is there an OS / seti client combo that would work best on certain processors? Is there a list of these combos somewhere?

 

[Poof]

Wiz - Shunting to the best OS (for those like me who run multiple OS's) is what most folks are doing... WUs are WUs and count for results! That's part of what JWM was mentioning regarding what Ken Reneris is working on for Setiqueue - ie., to be able to (I assume), assign WUs by AR to different clients. Again, this is assuming that you're geek enough to run multiple OS's...

And regarding combos... that info is being added to the TLC bench page. You can actually see how the different clients, OSs, and processor combos perform (plus whether it was OC'd and what the RAM settings were - which makes a BIG difference).

I would say overall, SETI is very genuine wintel-ocentric (although the T-birds do very well too). Windoze (or even the CLI run via WINE in Linux) + intel is about as good as it gets unless you have a newer alpha.

 

[Wiz]

Thanks Poof, just thinking about how I can maybe get some of my low end boxes doing more - Win98 doesn't seem to do the job very well on the AMD K62 procs. Then again a WU a day is better than none!
Guess it's time I got them going again...

 

[MrHans]

Some people delete these, some dont. I for one let my machines chew on em. I would think it's a personal matter whether or not you follow this practice. Just because some might do it and even talk about it in a public forum doesnt mean all blindly follow and do the same. Frankly, it sounds like you're whining a wee bit there, JWMiddleton.

 

[JWMiddleton]

Gazoooo:


<< Ars has been through enough the past weeks, as you are well aware... >>


This is the first time I've been to ARS Forums (other than following a link from here) and the info I was looking for was on the top of the first page I checked. So, I'm not aware of the past problem(s) and I don't expect you to fill me in as it is your business. If this activity is not condoned by the membership in general, then members should be called on it when their behavior is learned. Otherwise it is seen as acceptable behavior and becomes more widespread. Enough said.

Poof and Wiz:

Ken is setting up a Queue, per User, to hold VLAR WUs. At present he is looking at .15 AR as the cutoff. The Queue will not be allowed to exceed 150% of the Max value. Then the VLAR WUs are put into other Queues as before. Multiple computers from the same user will be able to access the &quot;special&quot; queue. Should be interesting!

mrhans:

Maybe I am whining a bit, or a lot! If someone else passes on a VLAR WU, then in 28 days I might end up with it. And, I don't like them anymore than anyone else. In a few days I am hoping that Ken will make this a non-issue. Again, enough said.

 

[Poof]

just thinking about how I can maybe get some of my low end boxes doing more

Trade! Do a trade! I run OGR for danzigrules on my K6-2. He does RC5 for me on a celly. Someone might be running OGR on a celly or maybe PII and they could trade that to do SETI a little better for you, while your K6-2 runs OGR a little better for them!

Kinda cool how this works and it maximizes production!



[EDIT: JWM - just saw your message about what Ken is doing. Cool! ]

 

[MrHans]

JWMiddleton , how about registering and posting over there at ars in that thread you linked? Let 'em know how you feel. Just a thought, and BTW, I meant you no offense in my reply to your thread.
hans

 

[Gazoooo]

JW:

Maybe you're said enough, I haven't.
My comment was that it is the choice of the users what to do with VLAR's not the specific team.
I'm sure TA would lose a good few members if deletion of VLAR's was cause for expulsion from the project, as would Ars, Team Canada, Art Bell.................

As far as not knowing what has been going on, well, you're a Senior Member here, I assumed you would be in touch with Major SETI events.......I guess I was wrong, but as you requested, I won't bore you with the details........

Best of Luck

Gazoooo